ABOVE: COURTESY OF LILY PEACOCK
While out in the field tracking Lancaster Sound polar bear movements, preeminent polar bear researcher Markus Dyck died in a helicopter crash near Resolute Bay in Canada’s Nunavut territory on Sunday (April 25), Nunatsiaq News reports. Dyck had worked for Nunavut’s Department of the Environment studying polar bears for the last decade but had more than 25 years’ experience in the field. The two crew members piloting the helicopter also died in the accident. Friends tell The Toronto Star that Dyck was in his early 50s.
Born in Riedlingen, Germany, Dyck first became acquainted with polar bears when his military service brought him to Manitoba, Canada. From there, friends tell The Scientist, he found his calling and went on to dedicate his life to studying and protecting them. He moved to Canada in the 1990s and worked in various capacities for different government agencies. He ...
